SCG Trust officials are confident a patchy new playing surface at Allianz Stadium will hold up under the strain of the Waratahs’ clash with the Bulls on Saturday night.

Vast sections of the field’s grass have been relaid after sustained wet weather inflicted damage during NSW’s last home game against the Rebels, and again in a sodden Sydney FC fixture.

The result is an unsightly mix of new, light grass and the older, greener sections in each of the corners.

Some of the patches were only laid early this week, and both the Waratahs and Bulls — and NRL tenants the Roosters — have been barred from training on it for most of this week.

The Tahs finally held a brief lineout session on the field yesterday but the big question will surround whether the new grass can withstand scrummaging, or whether it could dangerously buckle up under the forwards’ long metal studs.

Loose grass has previously seen injuries arise from scrums. In 2008 a “carpet-like” at Wembley Stadium saw Matt Dunning (Achilles) and Sekope Kepu (pectoral) suffer major injuries after the ground slid out and collapsed scrums in a Wallabies-Barbarians game.News_Rich_Media: The NSW Waratahs can be pleased with their work in the first half of the 2014 Super Rugby season, sitting just a bonus point win off the top of the Australian conference and fifth over all after completing their tough South African assignment already.

An SCG Trust spokesman said the grass used to re-lay the field was a special “ready to play” turf, which is grown with synthetic binding agents knitted into the root system to create strong binds.

More wet weather wouldn’t be ideal but fine weather this week has helped dry out the soil under the playing surface and see the new grass bed down.

Waratahs captain Dave Dennis said: “It’s been alright, they’ve resurfaced it so you can’t do much about it.

“We used to do one or two sessions on there a week and we’ve been lucky to train there twice this year.

“Now that soccer’s finished hopefully we can get on there a bit more. It’s just us and the Roosters.”